UK effectively blocking stolen phones
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Apr 14th 2007 11:55PM
posted Apr 14th 2007 11:55PM
What good is a stolen phone that's been blacklisted from networks, and the nefarious individuals formerly responsible for flashing them back into use have been scared off by the threat of five years' jail time? Not much good at all, we say, and a new study suggests that the UK's new laws fighting phone theft may be extraordinarily effective. On request from the government, the country's big five operators have started blocking stolen phones -- often within hours, and a full 80 percent within two days. Add in the fact that a new law taking effect this week makes handset reprogramming (to circumvent blacklisting) punishable by five years in the pokey and limitless fines, and we suspect a lot of these small-time criminals are going to be looking for new lines of work.
I hate how US does not implement something similar...
What is worse is that phone carriers wont even tell you who is using your phone, even if they know it is a stolen phone.
GO UK!
I do not know why the US wont do something like this.
The carriers go out of their way to be unhelpful here in the US - my Tmo phone was stolen and I called to suspend my account. One call was made after the theft and they did give me the number called (the person at the other end claimed to be a business that gets 100's of calls a day (at 6:45am - suuuuuure) But when I enquired about tracking calls by IMEI since the SIM had likely been swapped, I was told that I would need a subpeona - to get information about MY stolen phone. Totally customer hostile policy.
The CDMA carriers do blacklist ESNs, but they also blacklist ESNs for other reasons like nonpayment of bills. Its kind of convenient that any T-Mobile phone you buy today (from really old phones like the 8290) will work on the network, while with CDMA phones it is a hassle to make sure it is e911 capable and that the ESN is clear.
All in all, I'm in favor of ESN/IMEI blacklisting, but ONLY for theft.
This isn't anything new, networks over here have been cooperating with IMEI blacklist for at least five years--likely longer.
As for changing IMEIs, that's been illegal for just as long. Increasing the penalties is only a good thing, though.
This is probably the one of the few things that we've managed to get right early on and not screw up down the line :)
"Add in the fact that a new law taking effect this week makes handset reprogramming (to circumvent blacklisting)"
Who cares? No one is going to get caught doing it.